Aim:The purpose of this study is to investigate whether an investor will have to s acrifice their expectations of return by investing in a responsible way. Theory: The thesis is based on the efficient market hypothesis through the modern portfolio theory to make it possible to test whether the investor will have to sacrifice return after taking into account of the risk. To measure the risk-adjusted return we used Sharpe ratio, the Modigliani-Modigliani (M2), Jensen's alpha, which later on is the basis for the study's results and conclusion. Method: The study is a quantitative survey with a deductive approach where the selected theories determined what data is collected. Based on these theories we construct a hypothesis that this study later intended to test. Data was collected from Bloomberg. Conclusion: The study shows that several ethical indexes have a higher return while at the same time showing a higher risk-adjusted return. This higher risk-adjusted return is not statistically significant except for a few of the measured markets. The study also shows that the ethical indexes generally have a lower 𝛽, which can be interpreted as a lower systematic risk. Meanwhile the tracking error / active risk is higher and the screened indexes therefore should not be compared with say, index funds. When taken into account the longer period active risk levels match actively managed funds. As in previous studies, this study did not show any significant difference in risk-adjusted returns but a higher risk.

The basic purpose of this study was to examine the influence of service quality on customer satisfaction, perceived customer value and behavioral intentions, in three, four and five star hotels in Ethiopia. Additionally, an attempt was made to assess the differences pertaining to these constructs across customer profile (e.g., gender, nationality etc.) and hotel characteristics (e.g., star ratings etc.). A quantitative survey approach was used to obtain primary data from the respondents (hotels’ guests/customers) by administering the structured questionnaire. The original SERVPERF dimensions and related items were modified to best fit with hotel sector, by using desk review and preliminary interviews with manager, consultants and corporate clients of the hotels. A pilot study was carried out with 35 hotel customers to test the initial reliability and validity of the instrument. The final questionnaire was distributed to 440 respondents from 44 hotels (under three, four and five star categories), by using stratified (proportionate) random sampling. Of the distributed questionnaires, 435 were collected back (over 98% return rate), as completely filled, and used for the purpose of analysis. Descriptive statistics (mean score and standard deviation) were used to examine the customers’ perceptions of service quality, customer value, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. To identify the key service quality dimensions in the Ethiopian hotel sector, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed. The results revealed six underlying factors, namely: Assurance, Reliability, Responsiveness, Empathy, Room Tangibles and Food & Beverage Tangibles. Regression analysis was carried out to examine the relationship between the study constructs, whereby perceived service quality was found to be maintaining significantly (p<0.05) positive influence on customer value, satisfaction and behavioral intentions (measured as customer revisits and word-of-mouth recommendations) in the Ethiopian hotel sector. Moreover, both customer value and satisfaction were observed to be partially mediating the influence of service quality on behavioral intentions, with higher contribution from satisfaction than perceived value. Finally, the respondents’ nationality, gender, visit purpose, length of stay, hotel location and star category were found to be determining their perceptions of overall service quality. However, further research is needed before generalizing these relationships to other sectors/contexts. / Business Management / D.B.L.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:06:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2390.pdf: 3256865 bytes, checksum: 7ad1acbefc5f29dddbaad3f14dbcef7c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-04-17 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / Microarrays technologies are used to measure the expression levels of a large amount of genes or fragments of genes simultaneously in diferent situations. This technology is useful to determine genes that are responsible for genetic diseases. A common statistical methodology used to determine whether a gene g has evidences to diferent expression levels is the t-test which requires the assumption of normality for the data (Saraiva, 2006; Baldi & Long, 2001). However this assumption sometimes does not agree with the nature of the analyzed data. In this work we use the skew-normal distribution described formally by Azzalini (1985), which has the normal distribution as a particular case, in order to relax the assumption of normality. Considering a frequentist approach we made a simulation study to detect diferences between the gene expression levels in situations of control and treatment through the t-test. Another simulation was made to examine the power of the t-test when we assume an asymmetrical model for the data. Also we used the likelihood ratio test to verify the adequability of an asymmetrical model for the data. / Os microarrays são ferramentas utilizadas para medir os níveis de expressão de uma grande quantidade de genes ou fragmentos de genes simultaneamente em situações variadas. Com esta ferramenta é possível determinar possíveis genes causadores de doenças de origem genética. Uma abordagem estatística comumente utilizada para determinar se um gene g apresenta evidências para níveis de expressão diferentes consiste no teste t, que exige a suposição de normalidade aos dados (Saraiva, 2006; Baldi & Long, 2001). No entanto, esta suposição pode não condizer com a natureza dos dados analisados. Neste trabalho, será utilizada a distribuição normal assimétrica descrita formalmente por Azzalini (1985), que tem a distribuição normal como caso particular, com o intuito de flexibilizar a suposição de normalidade. Considerando a abordagem clássica, é realizado um estudo de simulação para detectar diferenças entre os níveis de expressão gênica em situações de controle e tratamento através do teste t, também é considerado um estudo de simulação para analisar o poder do teste t quando é assumido um modelo assimétrico para o conjunto de dados. Também é realizado o teste da razão de verossimilhança, para verificar se o ajuste de um modelo assimétrico aos dados é adequado.

In the wake of motion capture and visual animation one aspect seems to be lacking. A realistic representation of the dynamic and unpredictable human visual perception. A human examines her surroundings in a unpredictable, saliency based and top-down task oriented manner. In the field of computer science, interaction design and the industry of game development, great leaps have been taken when it comes to capture motion of bodies. Motion capture helps developers and film makers to portray realistic humans in virtual environments. Where motion has come far, eyes and perception has not. As of yet a virtual representation of human visual perception, has not been mimicked as close as body motion. This thesis will examine perceived realism in virtual agents, with a focus on eye motion. In this study a virtual agent has been given eye movements of human beings and been compared to an agent based on current virtual agents in games. This is the first step towards synthesizing more than just human motion in virtual agents. It will provide future research with the data and tools needed to produce an algorithm based on the gathered data. Prior context research includes a study of current games. Two participant experiments have been be conducted, both has recorded eye positional data for analysis. The first experiment helps build the second as it compares virtual agents using a Likert scale for a subjective rating of realism. The results offers some very interesting data, indeed data that lie at the core of the study as well as data for further studies. While statistical analyses of Likert scales might be considered ambiguous this study has done so and reached a conclusion. A virtual agent enhanced with eye-motion based on human eye movements does portray a more realistic human like behaviour. / Arbetet undersöker uppfattad realism av virtuella karaktärer som använder mänskliga ögonrörelser. Med hjälp av en Tobii Eye-tracker har personers ögonrörelser spelats in medan de tittat på en virtuell karaktär. Därefter har den informationen använts till att skapa en virtuell karaktär med mänskliga ögonrörelser. En jämförelse mellan dessa har sedan gjorts för att bedöma vad som uppfattas mest realistiskt. Resultaten kan inte statistik säkerställas, även om datan ger indikationer på att det är en skillnad. / Programme: Master of Science Programme in Design, Interaction and Game Technologies/Masterprogram i design, interaktion och spelteknologier Phone nr: +46735305836

This study assessed the impact of the Texas Counselors' Network (TCN) on students of counselors who attended TCN workshops. TCN is a professional organization created in 1996 for the professional development of counselors. TCN impacts primary and secondary school students by providing counselors with selected skills to assist them in helping students. In theory, TCN thus impacts these students by improving overall skills of participating counselors. This study assessed the progress of students before and after implementation of TCN. Students' progress was considered in four areas: Texas Accountability Assessment Scores (TAAS), attendance rates, dropout rates, and high school student enrollment in technical programs. The current study compared student performance in the above four areas during a two to three year period prior to the establishment of TCN, with the initial six years of TCN existence. This study examined data attained through the Texas Educational Agency (TEA) Website using their Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) for four regional TCN groups. The study used a paired t-test to compare the performance of students before versus after counselor participation in network workshops. The findings indicated that overall, counselor participation in TCN could have a significant effect on student performance. In fact, eight tests were run and all were found significant at the .05 alpha level.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect that mode of test administration could have on computerised assessment results involving proctored and unproctored test conditions. Two South African test instruments, the Learning Potential Computerised Adaptive Test (LPCAT) and the Career Preference Computerised Adaptive Test (CPCAT) were used in the study. A quantitative, quasi-experimental design was used, and a convenience sample for LPCAT (N=82) and CPCAT (N=81) consisted of employees in the hospitality industry. Using a within-participants design, the dependent t-test was used for statistical analysis. For the total group the LPCAT results yielded no statistically significant differences between the mean scores for the two different modes of administration. For the total group the CPCAT results yielded statistically significant differences in the mean scores per mode of administration for five out of 34 dimensions, however, for the majority of the CPCAT sub-dimensions, the mode of administration did not impact on results. It was concluded that mode of administration did not impact on the cognitive test scores and only to a very limited degree on the non-cognitive test scores. Based on the results the null hypotheses for the effect of mode of administration were not rejected. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Title: Body Composition and Motor Performance of Roma Children in the Most District Background: The Roma way of life, or rather the values they live up to, is different from the values and way of life of the majority population. This results in a lower life expectancy of the Roma and a worse social position in Czech society, even in total social exclusion. Since the individual's lifestyle evolves from childhood on, we focused on assessing the lifestyle using several parameters of body composition and motor performance of Roma children in socially excluded Roma localities Aims: The aim of this thesis is to find out the influence of the lifestyle of Roma children living in socially excluded Roma localities in the Most district on their body composition and motor performance. The second goal is to compare the body composition and motor performance of the children from majority population and socially excluded children from the Most district with the Czech children population standards. Methods: In total 733 children 7-15 years of age participated in the study, of which 448 were from majority population of the Most district (221 girls and 227 boys) and 285 children were from socially excluded Roma localities in the Most district (124 girls and 161 boys). Bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA 2000 M...

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Bankruptcy prediction is an important research topic. The cost of incorrect decision making in companies and financial institutions can be great and could affect large parts of society. But while it is indeed a major research area, there are few studies which consider the effects of feature selection. This is an important step that could improve the performance of bankruptcy prediction models. This thesis therefore aims to find which feature selection methods perform best for bankruptcy prediction. Five feature selection methods will be compared and used to create datasets with fewer redundant features. To test these methods, a LSTM model is used to train on both an unaltered dataset and datasets created by the mentioned models. The predictive performance of these are then compared with the metrics AUC, Type I error, and Type II error. This study finds that the forward selection algorithm from the Stepwise regression method performed best with an increase in AUC score and decrease in both Type I and Type II error rates compared to the model trained on the unaltered dataset.

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in high school mathematics education, especially in the teaching and learning of calculus. For example, studies conducted by Bressoud (2010); Judson and Nishimori (2005); Koh and Divaharan (2011); and St. Jarre (2008) all looked at how to improve the understanding of calculus students and what roles the educator must take to ensure that their students are successful. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference between instruction using computer algebra system (CAS) compared to instruction using the graphing calculator in high school calculus on students’ conceptual and procedural understanding. This study explored and compared two different types of instruction based on the use of two different types of technology, CAS and graphing calculator. The total population for this study consisted of 333 students. There were 187 students classified as using the graphing calculator and 146 students classified as using CAS. The data for this study were collected from four Advanced Placement (AP) calculus AB courses from high schools in Florida. The study used observations and two sets of calculus tasks in order to gather data. The research questions for this study looked at comparing the grades of students categorized based on the type of instruction received during the learning of calculus. The statistical procedure that was used was a simple oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the two types of instruction on the students’ procedural knowledge, iii however, there was statistical significance on the students’ conceptual understanding in favor of the CAS students. The study introduces a framework on how to obtain information about the effects of different types of instruction on students’ understanding of calculus. The results of this study contribute in assisting teachers and future researchers on how to analyze student work in order to obtain information about the students’ conceptual and procedural understanding of first semester calculus.